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ASIA^INSTALLATION^TRANSMISSION^NG900^HYDRAULIC CLUTCH
Transmission installation notes:
Make sure to establish some sort of system to keep track of all your nuts and bolts. I placed all my nuts and bolts into a bucket, and was fortunate enough to have a list of all the bolts (I wrote this as I performed the job) so I was able to easily pick the correct size bolts from the bucket.
Before you perform this monumental task, take the time to read through the instructions completely at LEAST once.
BEFORE JACKING THE CAR:
1. With the car on the ground, loosen the wheel lug nuts (17mm) and the 2 axel nuts (32mm). You might need a breaker bar for the axel nuts.
2. Open the hood and disconnect the Battery Cables. Start by removing the negative cable. The positive cable is a 13mm nut while the negative cable is 10mm.
3. The positive battery cable might be connected to the transmission bracket. Remove this cable. I actually had it connected to the top of my transmission case (12mm bolt).
4. Disconnect the reverse gear light switch from the back of the manual transmission.
5. Disconnect the delivery pipe from the throttle body to the intercooler hose. (7mm bolts on the hose clamps, different if you have changed to non Saab hose clamps). You might need to disconnect the delivery pipe from the engine bracket.
6. Make sure to plug both the throttle body hole as well as the intercooler hose. You do not want any particles getting into your inner engine.
7. If you want, remove the Boost Pressure Valve. I removed the entire like and assembly.
8. The next two points are only required IF you are removing the intermediate shaft. I had to, so I added them to this list after the fact. You might chose to attempt the disassembly with the intermediate shaft in place before deciding to remove the air box and loosen the serpentine belt. Remove the air box (10 mm bolts). Plug the Air intake pipe.
9. Release the tension on the serpentine belt by placing a ½ long extension on the tensioner square hole. Pull towards the front of the engine, and lock the tensioner into position using a 5mm Allen wrench.
10. Remove the engine cover and the two rubber inserts in the engine raising points.
11. Safely place the engine support bar on the fenders. Make sure to line it up correctly.
12. Place the hooks of your support bar into the metal hooks and clamp the engine in place. Make sure everything is tight.
13. Inside the car cabin. Lock the car shifter into 4th gear. I used a 4mm Allen wrench.
14. On the top of the transmission, remove the transmission plug and lock the transmission into 4th gear using a second 4mm Allen wrench. Any size that fits would do as long as it is sturdy enough. Make sure NOT to lose the transmission plug.
15. With the transmission locked into gear, loosen the shift linkage from the transmission selector rod. In my linkage (upgraded shift linkage) this is a 12mm bolt. Remove the bolt.
16. In the car cabin, remove the locking pin (Allen wrench) and shift the car into 3rd gear. This will uncouple the shift linkage from the top of the transmission. After making sure the linkage is off. Lock the shifter in place.
17. Disconnect both oxygen sensor electrical connections near the fuel pressure regulator, Disconnect the top oxygen sensor from the down pipe. There were two on my Saab; yours might have just one, depending on the year.
18. Remove the hydraulic line from the slave cylinder coupler. If your car uses a cable clutch, remove the cable from the cable arm on top of the transmission. If you have a hydraulic system, brake fluid will gush out of the line, so be prepared to plug the line as soon as possible! I raised the line and used black ties to tie it to the upper radiator hose. I ended up loosing a lot of brake fluid in the process.
19. Jack the car and place it on stands securely. I raised my car pretty high, and had to lower it a bit later on. For me this takes 2 minutes, so it was not a big deal. Just make sure you have the car high enough that you can take out the transmission, but low enough that putting the transmission back will be easier with the aid of your jacks. I had some cheap 13” max high jacks which required I lowered the car during installation. Remember this is a judgment call and depends greatly on your equipment.
WITH THE CAR SAFELY JACKED
1. Remove the final oxygen sensor from the down pipe. Disconnect the down pipe from the turbo 3 X 13 mm (you might need a wrench rather than a socket here). Remove the down pipe from the subframe and place it somewhere safe. Block the entrance to the turbo to avoid particles getting into the engine.
2. Remove the wheels.
3. Remove the car’s plastic under shields.
4. Drain the transmission oil. 8mm hex. If you cannot get enough clearance to access the transmission drain plug at this time, you can do so later on, once the subframe is out.
5. While the transmission is draining, disconnect the earth cable from the gearbox to the car’s fender.
6. MARK the subframe position to the car with the help of a Phillips screwdriver. Make sure you mark it as well as possible.
7. Loosen the ball joint nuts. 18mm, you will need a wrench for this.
8. Loosen the subframe bolts (just loosen!). Front 2 x 16mm. Middle 2 x 18mm. Rear 2 x 16 mm. The front 16 mm are very short. The middle 18 mm are much thicker than the rear 16 mm. So it is easy to tell them apart. If not sure, mark them accordingly. You might need the aid of a breaking bar to do this.
9. Remove the 2 x 17mm nylon locking nuts that hold the rear engine mount to the subframe.
10. Make sure that the engine support beam has some modest amount of the engine/transmission weight.
11. Disconnect the transmission bracket from the transmission mount (2 x 16 mm bolts); if you want, you can remove the transmission mount while you are at it. I took this opportunity, to remove the transmission bracket, sand it and paint it glossy black with high temperature resistant engine spray paint!! My transmission bracket has been victimized by battery acid on multiple occasions.
12. Place 2 jacks, one on each side of the subframe, and remove all the bolts. The subframe will be held in place by the ball joints and the properly positioned jacks.
13. Lower the jacks so the subframe weigh is now on the ball joints.
14. With a hammer, hit the back of the strut assembly. BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL NOT TO HIT THE CV JOINT BOOT THAT IS NEAR! I unfortunately injured the boot.
15. Remove the subframe and drag it out of the way. The subframe is pretty light, probably about 60-70 pounds.
16. Remove the driver side output shaft from the transmission. In theory it should slide out, but you might need to use a chisel or some wide blade to use as leverage against the transmission housing to fully release the shaft. Secure the shaft somehow, I used cable ties.
17. Remove the flywheel cover. There are 2 tiny 11 mm bolts.
18. Support the gearbox with a jack. At this point the transmission should be held in place by the jack and the engine hoist by way of the connections to the engine (5 bolts and the intermediate shaft).
19. Lower the engine as much as you can. The engine should be secured by the engine beam at all times! It will also be held in position by the remaining engine mount. The engine-transmission complex can be lowered quite a bit! You need to lower the engine enough to give the transmission clearance when pulling it away from the engine towards the driver side (US models).
20. Commence the process of removing the transmission to engine bolts. For safety, I used the rear subframe 16 mm bolts and placed them on the guide holes. Make sure the transmission is supported by the jack before you begin this section! The location of the transmission to engine bolts is as follows.
• Low near the fly wheel cover around the front end of the engine.
• Low near the starter towards the back of the engine on the firewall side.
• There is one right under the distributor plug. If you have a super long extension, remove it while you look through from the wheel hole in the fender.
• There is a center bolt under one of the fixtures for the positive battery cable. This is a hard to get to bolt. You can actually get to it with a super long extension from the wheel side!
• The final bolt is located somewhere near the transmission selector shaft. This bolt is very difficult to get to. I used an angular attachment to remove it at an angle using a breaker bar no less!!
21. At this point you should be able to disconnect the transmission. If you are lucky the transmission will slide out. Pull the transmission in the same angle as the engine. If the engine is tilted downwards 30° you want to preserve the angle while pulling. This facilitated somewhat by the transmission-clutch plate shaft, but if you have the incorrect angle pulling the transmission out will be VERY difficult.
22. If the transmission is not pulling out, you can use a fine chisel to get it to separate from the engine. The front side near the guide hole is a good place to pry the transmission apart. On the rear side, you can try to pry against the starter fixture. There is some play on the starter fixture metal when prying, is scary, but seemed normal.
23. If like me you were unlucky and you could not disconnect the transmission due to the intermediate shaft, you have to remove it.
24. To remove the shaft you will need to remove the 3 x 13 mm bolts that hold the intermediate shaft bracket to the engine.
25. There is also a long 8mm hex bolt that clamps the alternator to the intermediate shaft bracket. This is why we needed to loosen the serpentine belt earlier on. You can access this bolt with a LONG extension from the wheel well side. It is in the front bottom of the alternator.
26. The alternator will still be attached by the upper alternator mounting bolt. You might be able to move the alternator, even though it is attached at that top point. I used a giant chisel bar to move the alternator and make enough space to remove the intermediate shaft bracket.
27. After the intermediate shaft is out of the transmission, you should be able to remove the transmission from the engine. Lower the transmission and move it away.
TAKE A MUCH DESERVED BREAK! (END OF DAY ONE)
DAY TWO: TRANSMISSION INSTALLION
Normally you would imagine that refitting would be reversal of removal, and that is correct up to a point. Putting the transmission back into place is the difficult part of the job. Everything up to this point has been easy in comparison, unless you had to battle getting the transmission to disconnect.
CHANGING THE CLUTCH:
1. Before you even touch the pressure plate pay VERY CLOSE ATTENTION to the position of the clutch plate in relation to the pressure plate. Notice that the inner clutch plate circle is concentric with the circle created by the pressure plate fingers. The clutch plate is also concentric with the flywheel hole (use your finger to feel things around). The engine is at an angle, so you have to position yourself correctly to be able to see the concentric circles.
2. It would be tremendously helpful to make some kind of guide (wooden, plastic, metal) that will slide into position snuggly. I did not have a tool to align the clutch plate. I wish I had!
3. Remove the existing pressure plate. There are 6 bolts x 13 mm. You will need some creativity when trying to get the right angle to loosen the bolts as the flywheel will move somewhat.
4. The pressure plate just holds the clutch plate to the flywheel. So be prepared to catch the clutch plate (~7 lbs) in case it drops. The pressure plate itself is heavy. Fortunately for you it rides on 3 metal guide points.
5. Pay close attention to the orientation of the clutch plate in relation to the pressure plate. The side with the double backing and springs goes towards the pressure plate. The simpler side goes towards the flywheel. Remove the clutch plate and pressure plate. The clutch plate orientation should now be obvious.
6. If the flywheel has gashes/grooves or is severely scarred, you will need to resurface it.
7. Clean the surface of the flywheel with brake cleaner.
8. With the transmission out, attempt to insert the clutch plate into the transmission shaft. You should notice 2 things. First, the grooves on the clutch plate should mate to the protrusions on the clutch transmission shaft. Second, the clutch plate has to be ABSOLUTELY perpendicular to the shaft. Any angular variations and the clutch plate will NOT go into the gearbox shaft!
9. You will notice that there is absolutely no play between the plate and the shaft. In other words there is almost zero room for error. Keep this in mind. It is an important concept when putting the transmission back together. The angle of that shaft to the clutch plate MUST be perfect. Any small variation and the transmission will not go in!!
10. After you are confident you understand the relationship of the clutch plate to the gearbox shaft reassemble the clutch kit.
11. Place the clutch plate against the flywheel and the pressure plate on the guide pins.
12. Insert the pressure plate bolts and tighten by hand.
13. Begin the tedious process of making the clutch inner circle concentric with the pressure plate circle. You do this by tightening the bolts so you create friction between the clutch plate and the flywheel while centering the clutch plate with your special centering tool. I did not have a tool, so I used the handle of my ½ socket wrench to create leverage to move the clutch plate around.
14. Make the pressure plate right enough so as to require a modest amount of force to move the clutch plate.
15. Make sure you have the circles all perfectly centered before you torque the flywheel bolts (22 ft-lb). Torque the bolts in a star-shaped pattern.
16. Pay extremely close attention to the grooves in the clutch plate. I moved the entire flywheel by hand until the top spot on the clutch plate was a groove. This has to be very precise, so look carefully. Make sure that top groove is in perfect position.
HYDRAULIC CLUTCH
The hydraulic clutch system uses a pressurized line to move the slave cylinder. Without any pressure the slave cylinder is completely compressed against the transmission by the pressure plate (slave cylinder is in a small state). When the hydraulic line is pressurized, this fills the cylinder with liquid which pushes the slave cylinder forward, towards the flywheel. Once the slave cylinder is completely open (depressed, fully expanded), the slave cylinder presses on the fingers of the pressure plate which in turn press on the clutch plate springs taking the pressure from the clutch-flywheel surface (disengage the clutch plate from the flywheel). The slave cylinder is now in a big state.
For these reasons it is imperative that you bleed the slave cylinder properly.
I installed a new slave cylinder, which was pretty straight forward. The 3 Torx 30 bolts that hold the slave cylinder are connected with locktite. It is a simple “remove and replace” procedure.
BLEEDING THE SLAVE CYLINDER
1. Remove the hydraulic line/clutch bleeder connector from the top of the transmission. Pay close attention to the securing pin. The legs of the pin go one on each grooved side of the bleeder coupler. The center of the pin should go into the solid section. The legs of the pin go into the grooves.
2. Attach a long hose (450 mm) to the “nipple” coming out of the transmission (the end fitting of the coil that connects to the slave cylinder. It is a hydraulic line).
3. Compress the slave cylinder fully.
4. Fill the hose with brake fluid. If you have a pressure hand pump, pump the fluid into the slave cylinder with the pump.
5. If you do not have a pressure hand pump, you can repeatedly, and SLOWLY, push the slave cylinder in and out to push the air out. You should see bubbles coming out of the slave. Take your time pumping the slave cylinder. There is a LOT of air in there.
6. Clean everything up. You are ready for putting the transmission back.
GEARBOX REINSTALLATION NOTES
The most important lesson I can give you is this. The angle of the transmission must be perfect. The input shaft must be perfectly aligned to match the grooves in the clutch plate. If the angle is off by 2 degrees, the transmission will not go in. Therefore when re-assembling, make sure that the gap (distance) at the top of the transmission is the same as the gap on the bottom of the transmission. Do the same of the distance on the sides of the gearbox at the front of the car vs. the gap on the back of the engine bay (by the starter). Remember a perfect angle will be needed.
Second, if the grooves do not match between the clutch plate and the input shaft, the transmission will not go in. Make sure you have the correct matching! I lined mine by eye, so this part took me 6 hours! Think about it, 6 hours of moving a heavy transmission around! Be prepared for this in advance.
Lastly, you can use and should use the 2 x 16 mm bolts from the subframe as guide pins. If you removed the intermediate shaft, which requires you remove the lower alternator bolt, you can also use the lower alternator bolt as a guide pin.
I used three jacks. One was connected perfectly at the bottom of the bell housing. One was supporting (just supporting) the area near the output shafts. My best jack was towards the rear of the transmission. It carried most of the weight as well as being in charge of “lining” up the correct angle of the gearbox. The jack under the bell housing and the supporting jack where in charge of aligning the transmission rotationally. That is they were in charge of aligning the holes between the gearbox case and the engine holes.
All three jacks were arranged in such a way that I could roll the transmission in and out of the engine. In other words, all three jacks were parallel to the length of the bumper. Watch for the car’s frame. It can get in the way particularly if the Rear Engine mount is already mounted on the transmission.
It took a lot of trial and error to get the transmission in place. In essence you jack the transmission alternately until it is in a position to use the guide pins. Once you have the guide pins in place you attempt to push the transmission in. If you cannot, either the clutch plate is not concentric, the angle of the transmission is not correct, or the grooves in the input shaft do not match the grooves in the clutch plate.
I wish I could say more, but the only thing is to reverse the process of disassembly.
Notes:
Before you test the car, make sure is in neutral. Do not start it in gear.
Bleed the slave cylinder in situ, SLOWLY, to get all the air out of the line. The reservoir must be full to the brim. The clutch line from the reservoir is near the top, so if the brake fluid is low you will push air through.
Align the shift linkage before you even attempt to start it. Chances are you will be missing either 5th of 1st gear.
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